Transcript

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>> They're working in the White House.>> American hands.>> The wait is over 2016 rivals Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump clashing tonight with the eyes of the world upon them in the first of three debates that could be decisive in a tight final dash for the White House.

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Both sides heading in to the matchup at New York's Hofstra University facing lofty stakes. Trump needing to prove he has the temperament and policy chops for the job and Clinton desperate to convince voters they can trust her after months of bad press about her emails. Reuters campaign editor Karen Bonham.

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>> Hillary Clinton scores very poorly with voters on issues of trust and the Clinton campaign's view is that Donald Trump has been far less truthful than she has and yet, he seems to get a pass.>> Clinton expected to hammer Trump as a liar and a fraud, but without falling into the trap of seeming too dismissive.

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>> She came under a lot of criticism for a statement she made a couple of weeks ago when she said half of Trump's supporters belonged in a basket of deplorables. If she pushes that card too far, if she implies that his supporters are somehow bad people, then that might backfire on her.

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>>

APPLAUSE

>> I laid out my plan.>> For Trump, it's his chance to break with the narrative that he's too unpredictable for the most powerful office on the planet.>> Trump's biggest challenge in the debate is to overcome this skepticism among some voters who don't see him as commander-in-chief material.

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He has to appear measured. He also has to demonstrate that he has a grasp of policy details.>> Watch what I do, not what I say.>> Overall, I'm expecting the debate to be great political theater. Two candidates who have such different styles and there is a lot of potential when you have a candidate like Trump for there to be unexpected moments for the two candidates to try to catch each other off guard.

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>> It's also the first time a woman has ever debated as a major US party's nominee going up against the first non-politician with the viewing audience expected to shatter all records. Clinton and Trump taking the debate stage at 9:00 PM Eastern.